Rafael del Riego

Rafael del Riego (9 April 1784-7 November 1823) was a general and liberal politician of Spain who was responsible for ushering in the three-year Trienio Liberal after a coup against Fernando VII of Spain in 1820.

Biography
Rafael del Riego was born in Tineo, Asturias, Spain on 9 April 1784, and he graduated from the University of Oviedo in 1807 before joining the Spanish Army. Del Riego was captured by the French during the Peninsular War in 1808, and he was eventually released. In 1814, after traveling to England and the German states, he returned to Spain to become a Lieutenant-Colonel, and he joined the Freemasons and became a liberal agitator after the war's end. Riego took part in several conspiracies against King Fernando VII of Spain, and he led a mutiny of ten battalions in Cadiz on 1 January 1820 before the army could be sent to South America. On 7 March 1820, General Francisco Ballesteros forced Fernando VII to reinstate the Constitution of 1812, and Riego was promoted to Field Marshal by the new Spanish government. In 1823, he was captured after France invaded Spain, and he was hanged at La Cebada Square in Madrid on 7 November 1823 for treason.